1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drink mix containers and, in particular, concerns container designs that are adapted to be sold for use with commercially-available water bottles or suitable drink bottles and can function as both a receptacle for a drink mix and also provide a cap for existing drink bottles or containers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Drink mixes for use with water or other beverages sold in containers such as bottles are well known. Examples of such mixes include nutritional supplements and flavor supplements as well as other mixes that can be used to enhance a drink. As a further example, an energy drink mix can be formulated for use with water bottles.
Nutritional, energy, and/or medical ingredients found in pre-mixed liquid beverages are well known in the marketplace. Powdered mixes of similar nutritional, energy and medical ingredients are less known and less available in the commercial marketplace. One reason for this is the inconvenience of using such powdered mixtures and adding them to commercial water bottles. The process of adding powdered ingredients to water bottles involves removing some of the water from the water bottle to make room for the addition of the powdered mixture. Subsequently, the powder must be dispensed into the water bottle.
Drink mixes offer several advantages over pre-mixed drinks, one of which is that if the drink mix is in a dry form, its shelf life can be considerably longer than the life of a pre-mixed drink. Moreover, drink mixes can allow a consumer to customize a particular beverage, such as water, to achieve a desired taste, nutritional supplement or other supplement.
Powders are usually stored in thick, flexible rectangular or square-shaped “packets” lined with aluminum foil, in other appropriate material or in more rigid plastic, tubular containers. The process of adding powder from the package to the water bottle most often occurs with spillage of some of the powder over the edge of the bottle opening, onto the sides of the bottle and onto the surface on which the bottle is resting. As such, the procedure of adding the powdered mixture to the bottle is an inconvenient and messy process that often requires cleaning of the bottle and other surfaces. Additionally, for some mixes that are attempting to achieve a specific desired nutritional or medicinal benefit, the spilling of the mix can lessen the benefit as the specific desired proportion of the mix in the drink is lost when spilled.
Nevertheless, despite these difficulties and inconvenience, there are advantages to using powdered substances as ingredients and/or supplements for nutritional, energy and medical products. One advantage is that, since the powered drink in the mix is in a dry form, its shelf life can be considerably longer than the life of a pre-mixed liquid drink. Moreover, powdered drink mixes can allow a consumer to customize a particular beverage by adding different quantities of the powdered mix to a bottle filled with a liquid such as water to achieve a desired taste and/or nutritional supplement concentration.
Further, for most, if not all, pre-made liquid beverages, preservatives such as EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and other chemicals must be used to prevent the growth of bacteria, mold and fungi. Most such chemical agents are active only at acidic pH values below 3.5 or 3.0. Commercially available pre-mixed liquid drinks, regardless of their content of nutritional, supplement and/or medical ingredients are maintained at or below this pH level. Using powdered mixes is advantageous because they can be prepared without such chemical preservatives and the pH value can be adjusted to be in the biologically neutral range of pH 7.0. This is beneficial for most consumers, particularly children who already consume an excess of extraneous and deleterious chemicals contained within the hundreds of pre-mixed liquid drinks which they currently consume.
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that what is needed is a drink mix container that can store a powdered substance, which can be subsequently added to a liquid within a commercially-available water bottle (or to a liquid such as mild juice, flavored water beverage, etc. within a suitable container in a simple clean efficient and quantitative manner.